


The Taste so Sweet

by VivificanousPrime



Series: Before I Left You [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Loving gazes, Starscream being Starscream, pre-crash, way too much sweetener
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:54:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23911141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VivificanousPrime/pseuds/VivificanousPrime
Summary: Skyfire’s a sweet mech. Honest. But the things he does to his energon are downright evil.In which Starscream becomes consumed by boredom and Skyfire has a mild addiction. Not that Starscream does much to stop it.Takes place pre-crash/pre-war.
Relationships: Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers)
Series: Before I Left You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1723519
Comments: 13
Kudos: 39





	The Taste so Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Short and sweet, this is a little glimpse into Starscream's life pre-war/Skyfire crashing/everything going wrong. 
> 
> As always, all my work takes place in the one larger storyline that starts in the pre-war Golden Age and ends a little after the war does. Please let me know what you think! I love feedback!
> 
> Title from the Dave Matthews song "Sweet". I recommend a listen, it's beautiful music!

The Academy was quiet in the evenings. It made for wonderful working conditions, especially ever since they upgraded to an office with a perfect view of Cybertron’ s setting sun. As night approached, the whole planet was hushed, its breath held at the stunning display of astronomy. Soaking in every speck of light, knowing that as the day receded, night would envelope them in a colder silence.

Starscream gave a drowsy huff. He slouched further into his seat, fading down with the stupid sun. The move only angered his sensitive wings, but feeling discomfort-verging-on-pain was far better than being bored.

An unnatural noise escaped his vocalizer as Starscream lulled his helm to the left to face the room’s other occupant.

Skyfire, for his part, continued peering out the wall of windows at the star dipping behind the city line. Not even a wing twitch to acknowledge his presence.

How dare he! There were certainly more beautiful sites to be seen than the filthy grounder-town glowing like it was worth something. Sites like the one Starscream was enjoying now: Skyfire completely ignoring his paperwork. It brought a smirk to the smooshed seeker’s face seeing the data pad forgotten in Sky’s lap in favor of that sun going about its typical routine. That Skyfire looked like the sky had literally been set on fire was also nice, Starscream supposed. The downing star cast a brilliant light on him that hit at just the right angle to reflect along the curved plating and within every seam. Soft white turned into a pleasant, shiny cream. The red accents illuminated. Those electric blue eyes in such a high contrast to that kind face—

“I thought you said sunsets were dumb.”

—which was currently twisted in an accusatory smirk directed at him. Starscream pulled just about every plating in his face down.

“They are!” he screeched in his defense.

“You were admiring it,” Skyfire teased, smirk beginning to evolve into more of smile. Good, because as far as Starscream was concerned, the mech looked prettier with a kind expression.

“I most certainly was not!” Starscream scrambled to sit straighter to at least pretend to regain some of his dignity. It was a lost cause, of course; Skyfire already knew he wouldn’t waste what little he had on him of all mechs. “I was internally mocking you,” he insisted.

“Ah,” Skyfire exclaimed, eyes filled to the bream with mirth. Not that Starscream was still looking at them. “You fancy me a pretty mech.”

Starscream let out a short scuff at the audacity of such an allegation. “No, you’re hideous.”

“No wonder we pair together so well!”

“Oh, shut it! Don’t you have work to do?”

“Same as you, love.” Sky gave him a cute flick with his wings. Such dramatic motions with how stupidly big those things were. Those magnificent expanses of plating. They began to move again, raising higher and higher until the innermost panel disappeared behind Sky’s helm. “Eyes be here, Star.” Transfixion on his wings lost, Starscream finally noticed the smirk returning to his shuttle lips. Not pretty, no, but it complemented him in other, more tantalizing ways…

Nope. There was _actually_ work to be done, and frag it Starscream would finish it and finish first. He lifted his shoulders to turn his entire upper-half forward (he definitely did not make a weird face) so he was no longer facing the walking distraction that was laughing at him and was instead fed the view of Iacon entering dusk.

Gross.

The grant suddenly gained a great deal of appeal. Starscream onlined his pad and resumed.

“ _…Keeping all these factors in mind, exploration for alternative fuel sources would be a benefit to our current and future lives on Cybertron and the health of the planet overall._

 _The planetary research showing promising results for energon or energon-like deposits predict deposits within accessible regions of our galaxy. Various planets containing designated deposits to be explored include…_ ”

Primus, this was boring.

Starscream was well aware how important the research would be in finding alternative fuel sources, but he just wasn’t in the mood to muddle through what he had written and rewritten a thousand times already.

A quick glance at Sky informed him that his competitor was still diligently working. How dare he.

A fight ensued within Starscream in which procrastination was pinned against ambition. There was really no questioning who the winner was.

Data pad re-onlined, Starscream powered through another paragraph. And another. And another.

“ _…Therefore, Flauna 3’s apex predators, while a mild obstacle, can inhibit sample collection and requires the research team be effective users of null rays…”_

Starscream quirked an optic ridge at the nonsense he just read. He didn’t recall reading anything leading up to that. Dread creeped into him; looking two paragraphs behind, he found what he was looking for. And words he was sure he had never read before. Doing his very best to internalize the frustrations (by Skyfire’s chuckles, he didn’t do a good job), Starscream started over again.

After about five tries at finishing the section, Starscream threw the data pad on the floor in front of him. Procrastination is apparently more persistent. Skyfire, in a surprise turn of events, laughed at him.

Never mind him, Starscream huffed, cycling his vents.

A search began for anything remotely more interesting, and Starscream’s gaze settled on the window facing him. Focused in, he could admire his own, impressive reflection. It was a hard fact to deny that he was a gorgeous specimen. A fine tricolor with just the right accents in just the right places to give his appearance an elegant edge. Like all seekers, he was sleek, streamline, built to defy gravity. What made him stand out was a certain…look. Starscream couldn’t tell where it originated or what exactly it was, but it was indisputably there. Maybe in the way he held his wings? Or his chassis? Or was it the blaze in his red eyes? Starscream sat forward. He fanned and retracted his wings, crossed and uncrossed his legs, and tilted his helm back and forth to let the office light play on his frame with a smug grin. Settling back against his chair, limbs spread across the arms and legs splayed, Starscream decided he may just have to remain a mystery.

Interest in himself exhausted (for now), there was the other side of the window to explore. Iacon lay beneath them. It was a shadowy place after their star retreated, covered only in the moonlight of Luna 2 and the lingering smog. There were streetlamps, of course, but so many of Iacon’s inhabitants found their places in the darker crevasses, their movements betrayed only by their bio lights. From the higher ground, the people didn’t seem sentient. They were merely apparatuses fulfilling their assigned roles in this fragged up system with no real thoughts in their minds. They were all so small.

Several nearby buildings rose high above the wonderers, some even higher than the office tower. They loomed overhead to block out sections of moonlight and inhibit anyone’s vision of the stars painting the night sky.

The view was positively annoying. Starscream scowled at the inadequate architecture. It was nothing like Vos, obviously, but it was like Iacon hadn’t put any effort into appearance. There was the potential for a pleasing street design. There was the potential for cohesion. There was the potential in slag near _everything_ , but it was like someone just up and quit in the midst of the creative process.

To top it off, the city was actually bearable. Frag the people, but the city itself was so close to stunning.

In that regard, Vos was vastly superior. It was all appearance there, granted—frag those idiots, too—but at least when Starscream was having a rough day, he could be filled by the sheer beauty of Vos’s skyline. It was a shimmering display from dawn to dusk and a hauntingly exquisite sight at night. Buildings there were more creative, lacking walls throughout most of a design and making up for the lack of support structures with incredible feats of engineering. The city didn’t just bounce light off it like Iacon’s basic structures did. Luminous beams reflected off paneling and refracted within the eyries. The entire city wouldn’t silence itself in honor of the setting sun; it would sing.

Starscream shook himself awake.

Such fantasies of Vos were no more than just that: fantasies. His imagination taking his memories of youth and romanticizing the highlights. Vos came alive by sucking the life out of its residents, he had to remind himself.

Remorse was setting in, so Starscream looked to his conjunx to banish it. Skyfire had faced Starscream now that the sun had set and there wasn’t any more natural lighting pouring in from the windows. He was leaned back comfortably in his obscenely large desk chair behind the equally sized desk, making little notes on a nearby pad every so often. Not paying any bit of attention to _him_ , Starscream remarked.

Starscream was beginning to wonder how it was Sky could remain wake reading that grant when the mech in scrutiny suddenly shuttered his optics and stretched. Sky extended his massive wings as far as they could reach and fluffed his plating to elongate his whole frame as he strained and pulled tired circuits. Starscream found the entire event rather cute. He would never admit it aloud, but the way Sky’s face smooshed and squinted as his body took a moment to reset sent a happy little flutter through his spark.

His watching continued as Skyfire rotated his shoulders, removing the tension with little ‘clink’s. And as he bent forward to reach at something in his desk drawer.

And returned with an energon cube.

His happy little flutter faltered.

If Skyfire was known for one thing by his peers aside from his (many) academic accomplishments, it was for his abuse to energon. True that the slag here wasn’t anything like Vosian jet grade, but nothing could justify Skyfire’s blatant disregard for taste.

Starscream couldn’t look away as Skyfire absentmindedly spun in his chair to put his latest victim in the heater, eyes never leaving his data pad. As the poor thing incubated, Sky spun back to his desk and reached down again. He had to pat around for a moment, distracted as he was, but he eventually straightened with several packets in his servo.

Once they were tossed on the desk, Starscream counted out at least four. Two less than his usual, he realized; so, perhaps Sky was finally admitting his insanity. Good for him. The typical serving size, even for a mech of his caliber, was still only one, but progress was progress.

A ping from behind Skyfire made both their wings twitch. Sky spun back around to retrieve his now liquid energon and set it on the desk next to the packets. Starscream stared as his conjunx proceeded to dump in all four bags of sweetener. It was an absolutely sickening sight, the energon transforming from a deep blue to something resembling a dying mech. A pale, disgusting concoction. The frown he wore was involuntary, but completely necessary, in Starscream’s humble opinion.

Skyfire reached back down (please don’t, please don’t) and pulled out a stirring rod (thank Primus). The data pad was set down so Sky could grab his evil fuel experiment with both servos while still continuing to read.

The action was entirely routine. Sky continued about his task as he stirred his energon in rhythmic patterns. It was a melody Starscream knew by spark at this point, but he couldn’t shake away his gaze. Never mind how fragging huge Skyfire was, sights like these made his soft disposition abundantly clear. Starscream didn’t know of anyone who held their cubes in such a careful grasp, or who took such dedication in making their fuel just right (wrong as Skyfire was). The big guy was overly aware of his strength, and it showed in every little thing he did.

How could anyone not be trapped by the way Sky held his focus? Or the awkward way he held the stirrer? Or the cute way his mouth parted when he multitasked? Then he lifted his doctored cube to those cute lips, and Starscream was locked in rapture.

Sky’s face suddenly morphed into something between surprise and terror. He stared at his cube confused, and Star lifted an optic ridge at him. There was a brief pause as Sky visually mulled over what had troubled him. Understanding then eased onto his features. He set down the cube and, to Starscream’s utter horror, reached back down to the desk drawer. And pulled out three more packets of sweetener.

A completely different kind of transfixion took over as Starscream watched the additional packets be opened and poured in, the energon turning a whole other shade lighter.

Again, Sky stirred. This time, when he took a test sip, a satisfied smile played across his face, and he sat back, data pad in one servo and unholy brew in the other.

Six to seven servings of sweetener per cube, four cubes a cycle. It was a miracle Sky had passed their physical. Flying, perhaps, burned off a good deal of the sweets, but Starscream was still amazed by the level of fitness his lover displayed despite his poor diet. Sky did need to start weening off the stuff, though. If all went well, they would be soaring through space soon, and it wasn’t like they could justify packing hundreds of energon sweetener.

“You plan on cutting down your little problem anytime soon?” Starscream mocked. His tone was slick enough to gain Sky’s attention.

“Maybe,” Sky sang, voice full of mirth though he refused to look up from his work. The tease.

“Oh?” Starscream shot him a coy grin. “Then how will you ever survive our trip?”

Skyfire lifted only his gaze to peer at him. “When we know for certain we’re going I’ll go about lessening.”

Starscream’s leer only grew. “And our after-mission plans?” he teased. “You _know_ you can’t intake that stuff while carrying.”

The ploy somewhat worked, and Skyfire dropped his pad to give his cube—not _him_ —his full attention. “A tragedy, yes,” he vented longingly, “how I’m meant to cope with the loss is not yet known to me.”

Starscream’s face split into a smirk (and definitely did not let lose a giggle), basking in the gaze Skyfire finally fixed him with. He couldn’t help the thought of his poor conjunx suffering through sweetener withdrawal all the while carrying their sparklings. He had volunteered to, knowing very well what he would have to forfeit, but that wasn’t worth much. That Starscream probably couldn’t carry seeker-shuttle hybrids to term was never spoken but well understood.

He couldn’t do anything about their limited space on their planetary adventure, but their lives after that were up to them. If Starscream couldn’t carry, then his job was to make Skyfire’s time of it as comfortable as possible. He could start with the little things. Sweet tastes themselves were not as much a problem as a chemical agent found in Skyfire’s beloved additives. If an additive could be formulated without said agent, then the potential harm to a developing sparkling would be removed. Seemed simple enough.

Starscream’s smile didn’t leave him as he fetched a blank data pad and got to work. Skyfire teased him, asking what it was he was plotting, but he played the tart and swayed away from Skyfire’s curious gaze. He may not succeed in his side project, so why get his sweet lover’s hopes up? No need to tell him just yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this!  
> Please stay safe out there while the world goes crazy!


End file.
